What is the National Physical Activity Guidelines?

What Are Some Physical Activity Guidelines to Keep Your Heart Healthy?

• Answer:

  Regular exercise is necessary to keep your heart healthy. The American Heart Association and the American College of Sports Medicine work together on studies to determine how much physical activity you should engage in. They have created a set of physical activity guidelines for cardiovascular health which emphasizes aerobic exercise. Physical Activity Guidelines The American Heart Association and the American College of Sports Medicine's joint study of the amount of exercise needed to maintain a healthy heart recommends that you get aerobic exercise regularly throughout each week. The time and frequency of your exercises depends on how intensely you workout. If you are only performing a moderate intensity workout, such as a fast walk, you need to exercise five times each week, for half an hour. If your exercise is more intense, such as running, you only need to exercise three times each week, and each workout can last just twenty minutes. These times are recommended as minimums. If you are able to get even more aerobic exercise, it can further increase your heart's health. Aerobic exercise is the most important type of exercise for a healthy heart, but the American Heart Association and the American College of Sports Medicine also recommend muscle strengthening exercise at least twice a week. The most common type of muscle strengthening exercise is lifting weights. Although it is not necessary, most people choose to alternate days of aerobic exercise and muscle strengthening exercise. This will allow you to recover from one type of exercise while working on the other. Considerations for People 65 and Older Regular exercise is still important for a healthy heart at older ages. People aged 65 and older may find that they have a harder time doing some exercises than they did when they were younger. Strength based exercises, such as weightlifting, generally do not get any more difficult to perform, but aerobic exercises often do. If you are at this age, you should still follow the same guidelines recommended to younger people, but some exercises which are normally considered low or moderate intensity may be high intensity for you. For example, walking fast may be a very intense exercise for you rather than a moderately intense exercise, in which case twenty minutes of fast walking is enough rather than thirty. People in this age range should also include flexibility and balance training in their exercises, because both of these abilities will lessen with age. Regularly doing exercises for flexibility and balance will help you maintain these abilities, which will in turn help you perform other types of exercises.